Book Review: The Dark Lake by Sarah Bailey

Book Rating:

3/5

Book Review:

It’s been quite a while since I have finished a book! Have you ever felt like you are in a “book hangover”? I’ve started about 5 books and just haven’t been enthralled with any of them. I finally sat myself down with my reading pillow and said “I’m finishing this book, dang it!” So, I’m back, with one more book read. The Dark Lake by Sarah Bailey was good. It was a classic crime novel, full of twists and turns. Gemma Woodstock is a woman cop in a male dominated industry. She is one of the lead investigators in the recent murder of one of her childhood acquaintances, the beautiful Rosalind.

The case is a tough one–there aren’t any immediate leads, and every finding seems to complicate things even further. It’s not till the very end that everything clicks. It was surprising, but I had some hunches. I don’t think there’s any way I could have accurately guessed all the secrets in this town, but none of them really blew my socks off, if you know what I mean.

Gemma really drove me a little crazy. She seemed anti-feminist in a way, and put on this tough exterior when really she was wildly insecure, and mildly an alcoholic. I think what bothered me most about Gemma was that she was involved in an affair the entire time, and she always talked about how weird it was to be a woman cop, but then had the audacity to say “I just don’t buy into the gender roles battle. I simply push on and try to do a good job. I’m not interested in spending my time advocating for my rights: I want to earn them.” This was followed by her railing on a female reporter that was trying to work with her… *Insert me rolling my eyes hard* REALLY, Gemma? How can she say that she doesn’t want to advocate for her rights when she’s talking about how difficult it is to be a woman cop?

Anyway, off my soap box… Gemma was wildly insecure, as I said, but she’s pretty good at her job, I can’t lie. She would notice the hair that was in style, then touch her own. She would need verbal assurance from just about everyone, and she seemed to lose her mind a bit of the time.

The story itself was okay. I always like a good murder mystery, but maybe I need to explore some other titles–it’s almost getting too hard to surprise me!